Hi.. I have to bake a cake for a friend and want to make a Genoise. However as she is pregnant, I was wondering if I it is all right to use liquor to moist the cake.. and also want to ask.. as I am big fan of Buttercream I want to make Mousseline BC which has liquor as well as raw egg white. Will it be safe for Pregnant lady ????

Here in Japan I don’t get buttermilk., Can I use Sour cream as substitute or can u suggest anything else, if yes then what should be the ratio?? I want to make Red Velvet cake from RHC.

In India if I am not wrong we dilute Yoghurt with water and mix it well and add pinch of salt and that our version of buttercream I guess.

The amount of liqueur that she would be ingesting would be minimal; however, some people may opt to not chance it with either liqueur or egg white (I’m pregnant and honestly would prefer to chance it to these ingredients than consume ultra processed products!). Alternatively, Rose’s Golden Genoise or Moist Chocolate Genoise (I think!!) don’t require syruping. Or, you could just do a sugar syrup with no liqueur. I am a huge fan of ganache or a whipped cream frosting so perhaps you could use those instead of Mouselline buttercream if you were concerned. My apologies—I’m thinking of TCB recipes, but some of these appear in RHC in places as well.

I cannot offer much help re: substitutes as altering Rose’s recipes often can produce very different results.

Hii Sherrie..Congratulations and Many thanks for your reply.. I too love whipped cream, but roses can be made only with Mousseline, however its better I avoid and kind of Alcohol and use Sugar syrup only for Genoise as well:).

I am aware of the change which may occur due to substitute ingredient, I am fine with that, as I have no other option. I don’t get buttermilk here.

For the buttermilk, a decent substitution would be to add 1 tbsp of either lemon juice or white vinegar to 1 cup of 1% milk. Let it sit for about 10 minutes to curdle. Buttermilk is just milk with the addition of acidity. I can’t remember how much buttermilk the recipe calls for but you can use a straight substitution. I think that the red velvet recipie asks for low fat buttermilk so use 1% milk. The sour cream does not have the scidity required for the cake.

If you do a whipped cream stabilized with white chocolate (or a whipped white chocolate ganache) it may be firm enough for piping Roses—I think Rose also had a whipped cream recipe that is done in a food processor that she claims is great for piping (can’t recall if it was borders or roses too).

Regarding the question of liqueurs for your friend, you’d better ask her directly. There are so many differing views from country to country. Here in the U.S. the general view is to avoid alcohol, yet in Europe a little red wine is considered healthy.

If you’re looking for genoise without alcohol, you can make a carmelized sugar syrup or use fruit juice/flavorings in place of the liquor. For instance, a genoise au chocolate with caramelized sugar/vanilla syrup, or caramelized sugar/coffee syrup would be lovely. Or, a genoise classique with lemon syrup is wonderful served with fruit.

And yes, the golden genoise doesn’t need any syrup, and you could pair it with lemon curd mousseline (no alcohol). It’s another wonderful cake.

You may be able to find pasteurized egg whites, if you decide they’re necessary.

Gene, thanks for this informative link. I live in Mexico, where cultured buttermilk is not available. I am always looking for way to make my own, but every recipe I see calls for a starter of cultured buttermilk, which is not available. Maybe someday I will find it here.
In the meantime, I use thinned yogurt when a recipe calls for buttermilk. Adding vinegar or lemon juice to milk provides the proper acidity, but it is not the same consistency of cultured buttermilk, so the batters may be thinner. I thin yogurt with milk to a buttermilk-like consistency, and then add half the amount of vinegar called for to a cup of thinned yogurt. I am only adding half because yogurt already has some acidity. This gives me the proper consistency and close to the proper acidity.

Thinned yoghurt is a good substitute. By the way Sagarika. If sour cream is available you can use a couple spoons of that as a starter in milk to make buttermilk. Starters are available from a number of online sources for those who want the over the top authentic buttermilk experience. For example: